Man sent to prison for bear spraying deputies

A Flathead County man was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday for assaulting two sheriff’s deputies with bear spray in late January in Evergreen.

Devin Andrew Lelm, 23, was sentenced by Flathead District Judge David Ortley. Lelm will be ineligible for parole for the first five years of his sentence.

Lelm sprayed deputies who were investigating a report of someone peeping in the window of Lane’s Conoco.

As deputies attempted to question Lelm he pulled out a can of bear spray and discharged it at the two officers. Lelm took off on foot but was caught and arrested.

Both officers experienced pain and temporary blindness because of the spray.

At the time of his most recent conviction, Lelm was already serving two five-year sentences with the Montana Department of Corrections for felony assault with a weapon and criminal possession of dangerous drugs. The sentences were handed down on April 30, 2015, by Ortley. Those charges involved an incident in which Lelm threatened a woman with a knife in the parking lot of Kalispell Center Mall.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.